Rebel candidate Bhat gets BJP notice

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: The Karnataka BJP issued a notice to former BJP MLA from Udupi Raghupati Bhat on Thursday.

The party disciplinary committee president Lingaraj Patil asked Bhat to explain within two days as to why he was contesting as an independent from the South-West Graduates Council seat slated to be held on June 3.

Bhat was expecting an MLC ticket for the Karnataka South West Graduates constituency and had advocated for it for a long time.

However, BJP decided to field Dhananjaya Sarji from the seat. The rebel leader had been sulking because the saffron party had denied him a ticket from Udupi where he was an incumbent in the 2023 Assembly election.

The BJP had instead fielded Yashpal Suvarna who had won the seat. It is not clear as to why the notice was issued to Bhat at this point. The last date for filing nominations was May 16 and May 20 was the deadline for withdrawal of candidacy.

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) Teachers and Graduates cell president RM Kuberappa on Wednesday had alleged that sections of the BJP and its parent body RSS had been sabotaging the saffron party’s own candidate Sarji.

The Congressman alleged that the distrust was the fall-out of the Prajwal Revanna episode. The JD(S) MP from Hassan was featured in nearly 3,000 videos allegedly sexually assaulting scores of women.

The videos had started doing the rounds in the lead up to the April 26 polling day in Hassan Lok Sabha constituency. The issue has put the JD(S)-BJP combine in hot water as Prajwal has remained overseas after he fled on April 27.